Food Inc.

Dear Adrian,
I watched Food Inc. last night and it is distgusting and informative all at the same time. I wanted to press stop but I couldn't. the images were hard to look at but the information that this movie shares makes it a movie worth watching even if you have to cover your eyes. The movie is full of valuable information that most people have no idea about and really don't want to hear.
Filmmaker Robert Kenner shows society where their food is coming from. It includes interviews from experts including Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation".The movie shows how the food industry needs some change. Issues include:

• Kevin's Law
• Finding Local and Organic Food
• Factory Farming
• Pesticides
• Worker Protection
• Cloning
• Genetic Engineering

First off a way to avoid getting food from factory farms and whatever else is to simply buy locally. Go to a farmers market and buy things that do not have to be genetically remade so that they can be in season year round. Click here to find farmers markets in your area

Kevin's Law is a sad story about Barbara Kowalcyk's two year old son who died from E. Coli. The food he ate was not recalled until weeks after he was dead. This law would provide more restrictions and health inspections to factories.

Factory Farming is a large topic in this film and it's not pretty to watch. The film shows how animals are raised in more of a factory than a farm. They have no room and do not see light. What is really bothering is that if the farmers do not agree with the major meat companies guidelines for raising animals then they are out of work.

Pesticides are in a lot of food and are harmful. The easiest way to avoid pesticides is to grow food yourself or simply know exactly where your food is coming from.

The worker protection in this industry really stinks. The meat packing industry went to Mexico to recruit laborers. However, these laborers were really illegal immigrants and the industry knew that. Once society started focusing on illegal immigrants those immigrants were arrested. Yet, the meat packing industry, the people that brought those immigrants over were not fined or penalized at all. That just doesn't seem right.

Cloning is also happening to food. Yet there is no labels on food that is cloned! One of the senators shown on the film thought that it shouldn't be labeled as cloned because it would simply scare people away from eating it. Yet we don't know very much about cloned food!

Another big topic is genetic engineering. Did you know that the chicken is now twice the size that is used to be and in at least half the time? The breasts are also larger because more poeple like white meat. The chicken grows too fast for its organs to keep up and can usually only walk a couple of steps before collapsing. Yet there is a lot of good meat on that chicken read to eat.

And just some food for thought: McDonald's is the largest buyer of beef and potatoes. Isn't something wrong if a company that sells dollar burgers is buying the most beef? It kind of makes you think how all meat might just be made for dollar burgers.

Bottom line something really does seem wrong in the food industry. Yet, I'm not going to become a vegeatarian (again) because of this movie. I feel like a lot of people don't want to watch this because documtaries like this are criticized as being made to scare people. However, everybody should know where their food is coming from.

Now have fun eating your lunch :) I think I'm going to plant a garden.

-Danielle.